SAN DIEGO, September 6, 2014 – It takes a strong opponent to make a great fight, and Emmanuel Taylor made his bout against hometown favorite Adrien Broner an entertaining contest. It was an even fight on the scorecards for the first six rounds.

Taylor’s stronger than expected performance wasn’t enough to hold off Broner, who scored a knockdown in the last minute of the fight to put an exclamation point on a unanimous decision victory in Cincinnati Saturday against Taylor of Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland. It wasn’t the difference; Judge Gary Merritt scored it 115-112, while Robert Pope and Scott Maddox had it116-111.

Broner (29-1, 22 KOs) prevailed thanks to a higher power punching percentage and superior hand speed, but Taylor (18-3-0, 12 KOs) made him work for it, inflicting plenty of punishment through body shots and opening a cut on Broner’s left eye. Broner had the edge in every statistical category including a 48 percent to 32 percent connect percentage.

But Taylor isn’t Marcos Maidana. He isn’t Lucas Matthysse either, who Broner called out by name. “I said, my next fight should be Matthyssee… If it was up to me, I would fight Matthysse with this cut on my eye tonight. “

Taylor said, “I stepped up to the competition. I came to his hometown, I gave him a good fight. In the twelfth round, I got caught with a tough shot… I felt good the whole fight, 138 was my lowest since amateur days. I was in good shape.”

It’s awfully easy to say “bring it on” after you win as Broner did. After sleeping on it, Broner may wake up to reality.

For his part, Matthysse has other plans.

A perfectly placed liver shot ended the evening at 2:45 of the second round for Lucas Matthysse (36-3-0, 34 KOs) of Argentina, handing Roberto Ortiz (34-1-1, 24 KOs) of Mexico his first loss. It was not without controversy. Ortiz took a knee after the punch, spitting out his mouthpiece. Referee Benjy Esteves turned Matthysse toward a neutral corner with no urgency, and started the count at four with Ortiz.

Lucas Matthysse breezed to a second round TKO victory over Roberto Ortiz. Is a rematch with Danny Garcia next?

It appeared Ortiz beat the count, but Esteves waved the fight over. Not Esteves finest moment, but it it didn’t change the eventual outcome, only the timing of it. Ortiz and his corner weren’t pleased. After the fight, Ortiz said “I thought I was up at nine. He definitely hit me with a good shot, but I was up at nine. I could have got up at seven, I was in great condition to fight this fight.” Ortiz says he’d like a rematch.

Matthysse says he wants a rematch too, but he wants it with Danny Garcia, who beat Matthyssee in an upset last year. He told Showtime’s Jim Gray, “I challenge Danny Garcia to not be a chicken, to come and fight me, to stop fighting little boxers and fight a real boxer like me… Being for a title or not a title, I want Danny Garcia. If not Garcia I’ll take Broner. I’ll take anybody.”

Garcia answered immediately via Twitter, “I’ll beat his ass again! I beat his ass so bad the first time he wanted to retire! He don’t care about winning he wants to money. #TeamDSG” If Danny Garcia is this up in arms, imagine his notoriously outspoken father Angel Garcia getting wound up about this. It’s a fight a lot of fans wouldn’t mind seeing one bit.

When you land 63 percent of your power punches, you’re going to win, and Andre Berto (29-3-0, 22 KOs) picked up his 29th career victory after a long layoff against Steve Upsher (24-4-1, 6 KOs) with a lopsided unanimous decision.

Berto had a lot of ring rust to shake off and he did with a decent if not spectacular 10 rounds. Berto told Showtime’s Jim Gray after the fight he wanted to get the rounds in, “I felt after the first round I could hit him (Upsher) whenever I wanted to.” Berto said his rehabilitated shoulder felt good.

Berto thanked boxer Andre Ward, also trained by Hunter, and Floyd Mayweather who Berto said called him to offer encouragement during his layoff.

Perhaps one of the more interesting aspects of the bout was the performance of Rod Salka in the corner of Steve Upsher. Salka was soundly beaten in a mismatch himself by Danny Garcia, but he performed admirably as a trainer, pushing Upsher to perform. Perhaps Salka’s future is in the corner, not the squared circle, a la Freddie Roach.

Gayle Lynn Falkenthal, APR, is President/Owner of the Falcon Valley Group in San Diego, California. She is also a serious boxing fan covering the Sweet Science for Communities. Read more Media Migraine in Communities Digital News. Follow Gayle on Facebook and on Twitter @PRProSanDiego. Gayle can be reached via Google+

Please credit “Gayle Falkenthal for Communities Digital News” when quoting from or linking to this story.

• The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the editors or management of Communities Digital News.

This article is the copyrighted property of the writer and Communities Digital News, LLC. Written permission must be obtained before reprint in online or print media. REPRINTING CONTENT WITHOUT PERMISSION AND/OR PAYMENT IS THEFT AND PUNISHABLE BY LAW.

Correspondingly, Communities Digital News, LLC uses its best efforts to operate in accordance with the Fair Use Doctrine under US Copyright Law and always tries to provide proper attribution. If you have reason to believe that any written material or image has been innocently infringed, please bring it to the immediate attention of CDN via the e-mail address or phone number listed on the Contact page so that it can be resolved expeditiously.

Gayle Lynn Falkenthal, MS, APR, is President of the Falcon Valley Group, a San Diego based communications consulting firm. Falkenthal is a veteran award winning broadcast and print journalist, editor, producer, talk host and commentator. She is an instructor at National University in San Diego, and previously taught in the School of Journalism & Media Studies at San Diego State University.